Word for Word

18 Jun 2016

The Alternative Election Debate 2016

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:15:43 — 69.3MB)

From left: Duncan Spender (Liberal Democrats), Dean Beck (Emcee), Dr Meredith Doig (Australian Sex Party), Jason Tuazon-McCheyne (Australian Equality Party), Vickie Janson (Australian Christians), Jason Ball (Australian Greens). Picture by: Michael Barnett

Recorded live at the Kelvin Club in Melbourne on 16^th June 2016. MC – Dean Beck.

The panellists are:

Duncan Spender – Liberal Democrats

Duncan studied politics and economics, going on to work for the Federal Treasury. In 2001 he foundered Australia’s first libertarian party – the Liberal Democrats – developing many of their policies and philosophies. Today he is the party Treasurer and Lead Senate Candidate in Victoria at the forthcoming election.

Jason Ball – Australian Greens

Jason is the youngest person in the debate but do not that fool you. Few people would actually have audacity to consider taking on one of Victoria’s safest Blue ribbon Liberal seats and expect to win. No stranger to David verses Goliath battles, in 2012 he came out as this nations first gay aussie rules player – then systematically went about addressing the entrenched homophobia in footy. The inspiration for the AFL’s first Pride Round to played later this year, an ambassador for Beyond Blue and a true champion of our LGBTI communities.

Vickie Janson – Australian Christians

Born in Dunedin, New Zealand, Vicki Janson became an Australian Citizen in 2004. In 2009 she authored a book titled Ideological Jihad – written as an open letter to Waleed Aly and in response to his book People Like Us; How arrogance is dividing Islam and the West. Appointed as the first Victorian State Director for Australian Christians, she is the lead Victorian Senate candidate for Australian Christians.

Jason Tuazon-McCheyne – Australian Equality Party

In 2004 Jason married his husband in Canada and upon returning to Australia, challenged our Federal marriage laws by seeking legal recognition of their commitment. Clearly the inspiration for John Howard to legislate marriage as between a man and a women. He is one of the founding members of the Australian Marriage Equality movement. A leading voice in the LGBTIQ community for over a decade, he is the Leader and Victorian Senate Candidate for the Australian Equality Party.

Dr Meredith Doig – Australian Sex Party

Meredith started out as a high school maths teacher before taking the plunge into the private sector as a corporate executive in manufacturing, mining and banking. For the last 15 years she’s been a professional company director on commercial, government and education boards. In 2004, she completed a PhD on The Nature of Organisational Sustainability, focusing on corporate responsibility and ‘triple bottom line’ accountability. For the past five years, she has been President of the Rationalist Society of Australia. As one of Australia’s first Equal Opportunity officers, she is the lead Victorian Senate Candidate for the Australian Sex Party.